Morning Meditations #124: The Society of Anxiety

No better time than the present to begin a meditation practice. All the misguided thoughts and feelings perpetuated by an unhealthy system has now bled into leadership in the most overt way anyone will witness. It isn’t just about the president-elect.

Well, I guess it kinda is, but I believe this is evidence of a far greater problem that carries beyond just race and extremism, elections and corruption. This is about a society of anxiety. Trump is only and expression of such a society. The numbers don’t lie. More people voted to prevent a president from happening, a process of elimination rather than a process of selection. Not new information, but the cause is based in fear and loathing. It isn’t just about the voters either.

The candidates from Jill Stein to Donald Trump were disliked by the clear majority. Not a single candidate trusted. This is true for me. I voted blue to prevent a Trump presidency. I wouldn’t have voted for any of the third-party candidates presented either. Like most, I was a Bernie voter. And would have been a proud American for the only time in my life other than a few Olympic moments and maybe while watching Deadwood (for the quality, not the history). This reveals an anxious government too. One that isn’t willing to break from the molds they’ve (we’ve?) made, which, from the evolutionary standpoint, will threaten via extinction event at some point. From the psychological perspective, a mentality unwilling to adapt to change will quickly loop-up with anxiety, making bad choices for sustainable living or making no choices at all. How could we not fall into this progress trap?

As a result, we flailed about and then acted out. We elected a cartoon character with an Ayatollah running mate.

Yes, things will change. But, our change is symptomatic. We have looped up and are now enacting a type of societal self-mutilation. We found the worst possible way to behave, and we are now in a process of doing it over and over and over again. We must stop.

I invite anybody that is now freaking out to do something about it. I don’t mean the typical taking to the streets in protest (we should be doing that to). Before even doing that, I believe we must first do by non-doing. When our minds are in a panic, choices like this get made. It becomes impossible to organize ourselves, never mind organizing with one another. When we obtain moments of inner silence, we are able to listen to ourselves.

We open communication lines for listening to our whole selves. Physically, emotionally, and intellectually. Choices can be made that more clearly resemble our true hopes and goals.

Those of you that have never meditated or those who have tried but find it difficult, I will help if I can. But, I would love nothing more than to teach others how to give themselves the gift of clarity, the gift of self-love, the gift of self-forgiveness. I understand being hesitant.

It is scary and will seem silly at times. The monkey mind will be chattering away, and may even start criticizing the very act of meditation while you are practicing. Yet, mindful meditation will allow you to hear the mind, feel the body, and then come back to silence, letting all that distraction go. You will get to practice this dozens of times in only a short meditation. There are literally hundreds of ways to find these spaces in a day. It won’t take all of that though. It’ll be tough, but not hundreds of times a day tough.

We’ll also be able to hear each other better from this state of mind, as powerful of a feature as listening to yourself. Meditation is doing through non-doing.

Nothing will be solved or healed during meditation.

Meditation will not fix anything.

Ever.

It only allows us to be more aware.

We’re going to have to live with our acting out. The Trump is on the wall now and not everything is going to be okay; we have to be aware of and accept the reality. It’ll take time to repair and paint over. But, as Mr. Miyagi taught us years ago, painting can be meditative as well.